


Come To Dust

by everyperfectsummer



Series: LOSF Diversity Week [4]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Asexual Barry, Asexual Character, Asexuality, Bisexual Lisa Snart, M/M, Trans Cisco Ramon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 16:11:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11763561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everyperfectsummer/pseuds/everyperfectsummer
Summary: The day his mother is murdered, Barry loses his family, and gains a new one. Or two.





	Come To Dust

**Author's Note:**

> Betaed by the lovely Hannah. Please tell me if you think it needs warnings!  
> This contains characters from other media but it's all explained: bring your familiarity with the Flash and you'll be fine.

The day of his mother’s murder would always be the worst on Barry’s list of traumatic events, no matter how long that list became or what got put on it, because for all that getting struck by lightning and the Singularity and countless betrayals and even his father’s death were bad, his mother’s death is what happened first. It’s what set him apart from the other kids for the rest of his childhood. Sometimes, he thinks it’s what ended his childhood.

 

There are bright spots in the aftermath – he goes to live with the Wests, gains a second family. He also starts seeing reapers, and the ghosts they collect, and gains a third. Sometimes, he thinks that the extra family makes up for what he’s lost. Other days, it’s obvious that no matter how much family he gains, they’ll never replace his parents.

 

Which isn’t to say that he doesn’t  _ have _ parents. He has his dad, still. And Joe. And Susan Sto Helit, who subs in for her grandfather, Death, every so often to collect souls – and every so often just happened to be the day his mother died.

 

Susan’s a teacher, and her instinctive response to a small child left essentially orphaned is to take care of them. This means that she’s got a whole collection of strays, living and dead and grim reapers (neither living nor dead) alike. She introduces Barry to Rose Marshall, the ghost girl born in 1936 who will always be 16; Cisco Ramon, a raven death omen who warns people of their impending doom; and Lisa Snart, a girl whose father really did murder her mother, but didn’t go to jail.

 

They don’t quite grow up together, not the way Barry does with Iris, but more like cousins, who check in every so often, especially around the holidays. Only for them, the “holidays” are the tough days, the death anniversaries, the days each of them got inducted into their post traumatic world.

 

Barry sees Susan the most regularly, if not the most frequently. She comes around for his mother’s birth and death days, for his concerts and his soccer games and for his graduations. None of those days will ever be happy, but having her there alleviates the sting of not having Mom and Dad there. 

 

Barry sees Rose whenever she passes through Central. She’s a road ghost, which means that she migrates, going where the pull of the roads take her. Cisco comes around every time someone in his part of Central is about to die, warning the poor soul and then coming over to hang out, usually bearing food and stealing anything shiny and invaluable he can find. Lisa, who lives in Central, is the one he sees most often. She’s also  _ alive _ , which helps bond them together in a way that he doesn’t bond with Susan or Rose or even Cisco. They don’t go to the same school, her being several years older than him, but they live close enough to each other that they can tell Lewis and Joe that they’re studying with a friend and just hang out.

 

On days when they’re at the West house, Iris joins them too, and they become a trio. However, their shared tragedies of losing their mothers to murder right in front of them instead of to a death they don’t remember, means that Lisa and Barry understand each other in a way Iris doesn’t, really. Iris will always be one of Barry’s best friends, but there’s a gulf between them that Barry doesn’t know how to explain. So when Barry hits college and has sex for the first time, Lisa is the one he turns to to spill his guts about it.

 

“I don’t know, Lise,” he says, laying on her bed and staring up at the ceiling. “It’s just. Everyone always talks about how it’s great and magical and stuff, but I just. Wanted it to be over. It was sticky and gross, and I just... I never want to do it again, you know?”

 

Next to him, Lisa moves to squeeze his arm. “I don’t, really? But if you don’t want to have sex, don’t. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, especially not that. And if anyone gives you a hard time about it, point them my way and I’ll fight them.”

 

He smiles, still staring at the ceiling. “Thanks,” he says, more towards the support than the offer to fight someone.

 

Several weeks later, he gets an email from Lisa.  _ Hey dude, I talked to my brother about not wanting to have sex (I didn’t mention your name, no worries!), and he told me about a sexuality called asexuality that a friend of his has, and long story short I think it might apply to you too? Anyway  _ _ here’s a link _ _ to info about asexuality. If it isn’t you, that’s cool, if it is you, that’s cool too.  <333 _

 

He reads her email, clicks on the link, and slowly starts to smile because suddenly so many things make sense and he isn’t weird anymore. This is something that other people have. This is ok.

 

He emails her back with a quick  _ THANKS!  _ and they don’t talk about the matter again until the weekend, when Cisco shows up to take them all out to ice cream.

 

“So,” Cisco says, “any new events in your life? Anything I should know about?” 

 

Lisa and Barry exchange glances and then, “Well, sort of? I figured out I’m ace? Well, Lisa helped me figure it out.”

 

Cisco stares at him with the bewildered smile of someone who has no idea what “ace” is but is determined to be supportive anyway. “Ok! What does that mean?”

 

Barry explains and watches his bewilderment change to understanding. Throughout, his support never wavers, and he feels a rush of gratitude for this man he calls a brother.

 

“...so that’s. Yeah. Basically it,” Barry finishes his explanation, and Cisco pulls him across the table into a half hug. He hugs him back and then pulls away, only to realize that his eyes are watering.

 

“Also, not to steal your thunder or anything, but if we’re coming out, I think I’m bi? Realization as of two days ago?” Lisa says, and Cisco reaches both hands across the table to hi five each of them and then pull them both into another hug.

 

“I love you both, and I’m so glad you’re figuring stuff out about yourselves,” he says.  He releases them from the hug, and then says, “And while we’re doing the coming out thing, I’m trans. Which you already knew, but.”

 

“We’ve literally known that for years,” Lisa says.

 

“Yeah, but I felt left out.”

 

The three of them crack up, tears turning to tears of laughter, and when the laughter breaks, they all sit in comfortable silence for a bit, all of them pretending not to be teary-eyed.

 

Then Lisa breaks the silence with a determined subject change, excitedly telling them both about how her brother and his best friend have come to visit, and how they should all hang out. “I haven’t seen my family hang with my other family in ages,” Lisa says. “I especially miss seeing Len and Bar-ar-ry,” she says, sing-song, reminding them all of Barry’s  _ completely embarrassing _ (and thankfully long dead) crush on her older brother.

 

“Shut up,” Barry says, in a stunning display of eloquence.

 

“Play nice,” Cisco says, with a tone of amusement more than genuine reprimand. “So, when works for everybody to hang out?” he asks. “Next weekend?”

 

There’s a short delay as everyone contemplates their schedules and then nods all around. “Next Saturday, maybe? Afternoon, at Barry’s dorm?” Lisa suggests.

 

“I live in the world’s smallest single!” Barry protests, knowing that it’s in vain, and that they will inevitably end up in his room with him in close quarters with one of the cutest guys he’s ever seen. 

 

He’s over Lisa’s brother, has been for years now – but her brother’s best friend?  _ Swoon. _ Barry may be asexual (and the word still tastes both strange and wonderful on his tongue), but he still wants to have Mick’s adopted babies. He’s also aware that subtlety is not his strong suit, and that he’s only one or two conversations away from being teased about Mick for the rest of his life.

 

Lisa and Cisco just look at him, and he groans, knowing that neither the criminal nor the death omen have anywhere halfway safe to hang out. “Ok, ok. But I’m bringing Iris!”

 

Next Saturday rolls around, bringing with it several p-sets, a rise in temperature, and the get together. Barry goes through every item of clothing he owns, which turns out to include several of Iris and Lisa’s things, approximately five times as he tries to pick out what to wear. He discards everything for being either too casual or too nice or too lacey (he doesn’t actually want to know whether the red lace dress belongs to Lisa or Iris), not wanting to look bad but not wanting to look like he’s try to look good, either. He finally settles on a just-washed red button down and jeans.

 

He wants to spend the next few hours on his hair and maybe some light makeup, but a quick glance at the clock tells him that he only has twenty minutes until the others come over. He carefully runs gel through his hair, trying to get it just the right amount of spiky-but-natural, and is frowning at himself in the mirror when Lisa, Len, and Mick walk in.

 

Barry turns, about to ask them how they got past the locked door, when he sees Mick and all other thoughts go out the window. Since Barry’s last seen him, the guy’s bulked up, and Barry definitely appreciates the view.

 

As Barry gawks at him, all he can think is, “I want to cuddle you so hard.”

 

He snaps back to attention and hears Lisa say, “So, we’re a little early, which means we’re ten minutes ahead of Iris and twenty ahead of Cisco.”

 

Barry just nods, careful not to look at Mick.

 

Lisa turns out to be wrong, when Cisco comes well ahead of Iris, strutting in the door in all black with feather earrings. “Hi guys,” he says, and Mick freezes.

 

“No,” he says, face pale, voice stricken, “Not again.”

 

Cisco looks at him, confused, and then peers at him with dawning recognition. “You’re the boy from the farm on fire.”

 

“You’re the one who made me kill my family,” Mick says, and Lisa and Barry suddenly know what’s happened.

 

“No, no, no, Mick!” Lisa says, “she’s not –”

 

“It’s a common misapprehension, but –”

  
“– isn’t why they died, just–”

 

“–but death omens just foretell death, they don’t cause it–”

 

“–haven’t you heard correlation isn’t causation!”

 

Something in their jumbled explanations reassures Mick, and he lowers his shoulders. “Ok, so she’s not why they died, still I – I need to not be here,” he says, and leaves the room.

 

After Mick leaves, Len turns to Lisa and raises his eyebrows. “You’ve been hanging with a death omen? What, is Barry here a siren or something?”

 

“Is Barry a what?” Iris says, walking into the room, and that’s the story of how Lisa and Barry tell their siblings about the real reason that Lisa and Barry are friends. Cisco helpfully demonstrates that they’re not delusional by turning into a raven and back, and flying about, getting feathers everywhere.

 

Iris takes it in stride, as she does everything, and although she is upset about the secret, she’s perceptive enough to know that emotions are already running high without her adding to the mix. Len takes it as he does all things to do with Lisa: as a potential threat that must be guarded against. Instead of watching a movie and downing popcorn, as they’d originally planned, the five of them spend the afternoon asking and answering questions, respectively.

 

Barry thinks the grilling session is over when he ushers the others out his door late that evening so that he can study and then sleep. However, Mick had apparently been waiting for the others to leave so that he could corner Barry alone.

 

“You know about death omens,” Mick says, standing just inside the doorway, “and you said it’s not their fault when people die.”

 

Refraining from pointing out, for the second time that day, that the door  _ had been locked _ , Barry instead says, “Look, it’s – basic correlation does not equal causation. Death omens appear every time just before someone dies, to warn them so that they can get their affairs in order. And because the death omens are there right before death, people think they’re the COD, but they’re  _ not _ , they’re just people doing their jobs. It’s like thinking that fire causes firefighters. Actually, it sort of does, so that’s a bad example. But you know what I mean! Unless you don’t, in which case –”

 

Mick raises a hand. “I think I get it. And I’m going to be asking Lisa, too, to make sure your stories line up.” He leans back against the door. “Line up about  _ everything. _ So, tell me everything about death omens, about that Cisco you’re friends with, and about how you and Lisa know this stuff.”

 

Barry gapes at him. “It’s 6! I have three p-sets due tonight at midnight! I don’t have time for a life history, because I have a life!” 

 

Mick shrugs. “So I’ll ask you a bit today and a bit tomorrow and a bit the next day.”

 

And he does, asking and asking until Barry’s told him everything he knows about death omens (that he’s cleared with Cisco, at least) and has also accidentally told him roughly half of the unabridged Barry Allen autobiography, ranging from his friendships to his families to his past crushes to his past trauma.

 

Mick mostly just asks and listens, but he tells some too. Tells Barry about the fire, about killing everyone he loved and not realizing they were dying until it was late; tells him about his own ill-advised crush on Len (and isn’t it odd, to have a crush in common with his crush); tells him about how he’s starting to like Cisco, even though it’s hard for him to trust him. And, one day, he tells him this: “You know, I have a crush on someone new, now.”

 

“Oh?” Barry says, heart sinking. It’s so much easier to have unrequited crushes when they don’t have crushes of their own. Or worse –  _ actual relationships _ .

 

“You,” Mick says, and Barry’s heart stops mid fall and starts convulsing, instead. 

 

“Um,” Barry says, with his usual eloquence. “Cool?”

 

Mick starts to turn away, his mouth turning down, and Barry rushes to reassure him. “I kind of have a crush on you too?”

 

He claps a hand over his mouth, embarrassed, but it’s made worth it when Mick’s mouth turns upwards again and his eyes light up. “You do?”

 

“Yeah,” Barry says, “I do.”


End file.
